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Alloy-Enhanced Fans Maintain Fresh Air in Tunnels

Saturday, 01 January 2011

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NASA Technology

The Partnership for Next Generation Vehicles
(PNGV) is not a NASA initiative to develop powerful
new rockets and spacecraft, even though it
may sound like one. PNGV was a partnership established
by the Clinton administration between the Federal government
and the U.S. Council for Automotive Research
to develop technologies that improve fuel efficiency and
reduce emissions from cars and trucks. More than 20
Federal laboratories from the Departments of Commerce,
Energy, Transportation, and Defense; the Environmental
Protection Agency; the National Science Foundation; and
NASA were all involved in PNGV, in addition to more
than 350 automotive suppliers, universities, and small
businesses.

In support of this tremendous effort, Jonathan Lee,
a materials engineer at Marshall Space Flight Center,
worked with a major automobile manufacturer in 1995
to develop a strong aluminum alloy for high temperature
applications. The aim was to use the alloy for manufacturing
parts for an internal combustion engine, as well
as for NASA’s propulsion applications. When funding
from PNGV ended, Marshall continued to support the
alloy’s development with help from NASA’s Innovative
Partnerships Program (now the Office of the Chief
Technologist). Together with PoShou Chen, a scientist
with Morgan Research Corporation, Lee invented a highstrength
aluminum alloy called MSFC-398 that, when
tested, was three to four times stronger than conventional
aluminum alloys at high temperatures.

By the late 1990s, Lee says, NASA’s scientists had
successfully developed and patented this technology, which
has great potential applications not for just automotive, but
also for aerospace, marine, and commercial applications.

Partnership

After Marshall made the technology available for
licensing in 2001, Bombardier Recreational Products Inc.
licensed the alloy to cast parts for outboard marine engines
(Spinoff 2004 and 2008). By 2005, the alloy had won
Marshall’s “Invention of the Year” award, and a year later,
the National Federal Laboratory Consortium recognized
the alloy with an “Excellence in Technology Transfer”
award.

The most recent success of this technology, however,
was in 2010. Twin City Fan Companies Ltd. in
Minneapolis, Minnesota, licensed the alloy to make impellers
(blades and hubs) for safety ventilation fans in rail and
road tunnels. “We wanted a high temperature alloy that
would have the strength and properties needed for safety
fan impellers at very high temperatures. We found the
NASA alloy, and upon further investigation, we knew that
it was the right path for us,” says Dan Hartlein, executive
vice president at Twin City Fan Companies Ltd.

The division of Twin City Fan Companies Ltd. that is
marketing the first fans made with the NASA aluminum
alloy is Clarage, which is based in Pulaski, Tennessee.
However, Michael Barry, president and COO of Twin
City Fan Companies Ltd., finds there are broad application
possibilities for all of the company’s global brands,
including Twin City Fan and Blower and Aerovent. “Twin
City Fan is a global American company. It gives us great
pride to be able to utilize the special technology created by
a technology leader like NASA,” says Barry.

Benefits

Twin City Fan licensed the NASA alloy with a specific
application in mind: tunnel safety fans for the European
market, where fans must be able to operate in 752 ˚F for
two hours in order to be certified for use. The reason for
the high temperature requirement is the fan must be able
to operate successfully when there is a fire in a road or rail
tunnel. When spinning in one direction, the fan provides
clean air to the people inside; when spinning the other
direction, it removes the smoke and gasses from the fire.

Question of the Week

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